


Who's Who

by Radiolaria



Series: Meta Essays [12]
Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Archived From Tumblr, Archived From onaperduamedee Blog, Fanwork Research & Reference Guides, Gen, Literary References & Allusions, Meta Essay, Nonfiction, Witchcraft
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-10
Updated: 2018-12-10
Packaged: 2019-09-15 17:07:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,157
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16937307
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Radiolaria/pseuds/Radiolaria
Summary: A literary re-reading of “The Magician’s Apprentice” and “The Witch’s Familiar”: who is the apprentice, the witch, the magician and the familiar in this story?





	Who's Who

**Author's Note:**

> Originally published on Oct. 7, 2015 on [onaperduamedee](https://onaperduamedee.tumblr.com/post/130652565090/whos-who-of-stories-a-reading-of-the).

Know your tricksters. Take your nursery rhymes seriously. Monsters are not to be trapped, even in pictures. Words set in ink are words set in stone.

If Moffat’s era taught me anything is that source material is the stuff that reality is made of. People are stories. And stories are people.

Be it “A Good Man Goes to War” and the Doctor (though _a posteriori_ and in-universe), or “The Bells of Saint John” and perilous London, “The Magician’s Apprentice” and “The Witch’s Familiar” call back to well-known stories: “The Sorcerer’s Apprentice” and the folklore familiar spirit. There, mere titles, in introducing two characters, named four different people: a magician, an apprentice, a witch and a familiar.

Delving into the “who’s who” of the episodes provides an interesting canvas for analysis.

## O Kobold

Source materials are the keys to everything:

The obvious origin is [“The Sorcerer’s Apprentice”](http://germanstories.vcu.edu/goethe/zauber_dual.html), a 1797 ballad by J. W. von Goethe telling the story of a sorcerer’s apprentice who wreaks havoc by trying on his master’s spells. In the sorcerer’s absence, the apprentice gives life to a broom and orders it to fill a basin with water. Unable to reverse the spell and stop a flood from happening, he chops the overzealous broom with an axe, only to multiply by two the problem. The sorcerer’s return and magic words save the apprentice. The conclusion of the story sees that the spirits obey to the master’s voice only.

Obviously, the Doctor, with his tricks and mannerisms, has been compared to a magician many a time, particularly in Twelve’s body and particularly in this episode –Bors calls him “Magician”. Not jumping to the obvious will take you further.

For episodes with such titles as “The Magician’s Apprentice” and “The Witch’s Familiar”, they display a surprising lack of the Doctor performing his usual magic – he’s a sonic-less prisoner for one and a half episode. And when he does, it is a deconstruction of the trick, through Missy’s words; Missy blatantly reveals the Doctor’s –and her- secrets on how to spirit away in a puff of smoke. The resolution of the episode does not revolve around the Doctor knowing what Davros was doing. The Doctor did go to Davros without any contingency and he did get trapped: in Missy’s words, “he made a will and threw himself a goodbye party”. What he saw in Davros’ manipulation –when he eventually saw through it- was a window of opportunity to create a disruption and escape. The bio energy still went to the entirety of the Dalek fleet. Davros just happened to forget it would also revive irate rebellious Daleks. No magic tricks here.

If the Doctor is not the Magician of this story, who is he?

Well, “The Magician’s Apprentice” tells of the rather detoured story of a summoning. Deadly in its outcome, granted, but _unequivocal_. Davros summons the Doctor on his deathbed and the Doctor, though reluctant and coerced into going, eventually joins Davros on Skaro. And his presence is required only because of his extraordinary characteristics; intrinsic magic, basic regenerative energy. **The Doctor is the _summoned_ , a spirit and trickster**, appearing at first out of nowhere to a young Davros in the war-scarred plains of Skaro and later spreading chaos there. And by spreading chaos, I mean Skaro ended up flooded with decaying Dalek goo just as the waters rose in Goethe’s poem.

The Doctor is the malicious spirit whose power drowned a city.

(In a mirroring twist to Davros summoning, Missy also requests Clara’s presence, by literally sending her metal auguries -augury was the [“divination from the flight of birds”](http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=augury). Except the very nature of Clara and Missy’s coffee date makes it difficult to introduce a hierarchy: Clara is as much in control as the Mistress. The Doctor is swept away by Davros)

But elusive spirits are summoned and the one summoning them, **Davros, must be either the magician or his apprentice**.

 

## When it comes to swallowing a lie, they are babes and more than babes

You could argue one or the other, but digging deeper in sources material bring meatier results: an earlier version of the sorcerer’s apprentice story can be found in Lucian of Samosata’s “[The Lover of Lies, or The Doubter](http://www.sacred-texts.com/cla/luc/wl3/wl315.htm)” (II c. A.D.). Tychiades complains to one of his friends about an argument he had with elders over the existence of the supernatural*. A doubter, Tychiades recalls how the learned and venerable Eucrates tried to end the debate with the recollection of a personal encounter with magic: a young man, Eucrates studied under an Egyptian scribe who could breathe life into a pestle and command it, using secret words. The young Eucrates spied on his master to learn the words and, once alone, fell into a predicament identical to the apprentice’s. His teacher, angered, left after having saved him. Eucrates’ story aims at proving magic exists, but Tychiades only recalls the anecdote to display Eucrates’ relentless lying. Even great minds are corrupted by old wives’ tales and, worse, try to pass on the corruption. Truth and common sense only can spare Tychiades.

An ill old man spinning tales? The parallel with Davros is too good to ignore. All the more that the old man lying to convince Tychiades is also the apprentice who abused his master’s magic words. And Davros is the one to summon the Doctor and deceive him into granting regenerative energy. Another argument for Davros as the Apprentice is provided by “The Witch’s Familiar” outcome: in summoning a trickster Davros thought he could bend to his will, he lost control of his creation, the Daleks, and specifically the decaying Daleks that flooded Skaro. Pestles, brooms, sticks… Davros was the old Eucrates spinning lies to convince Tychiades as much as **the reckless apprentice who thought he could handle spirits.**

The dynamic of Davros and Doctor can be thus read as something quite different from what the title suggests. And to Moffat’s credit, it works just as well with the second episode.

The cutting and naming of the episodes is paramount here. While “The Magician’s Apprentice” tells the story of a summon, “The Witch’s Familiar” focuses on face-à-face, two of them: on one hand, Davros and the Doctor, apprentice and trickster, sweet-pretending to each other’s face; on the other hand, Missy and Clara keep trying to kill each other.

Not really master and slave, or in tune. More like an unfriendly team.

**And this is where the familiar comes in.**

## Every miner needs a canary

Familiars are not merely sorcerer’s pets. Summoned, they are spirits that provide enchanters with help and can take the appearance of animals, but not only. They are the creatures that whisper in the witch’s ear to counsel her dark deeds. Think Socrates’ _daimon_ , except intrinsically linked with sorcery. Or Behemoth in _The Master and Margarita_ , a big demonic cat, who is as disruptive and ill-meaning as any Faust’s Mephisto. In fact, go exactly there: familiar spirits are what Mephisto is to Faust rather than what Pullman’s _daemons_ are to humans.

While the duo formed by Davros and the Doctor constantly shifts and reverts itself –hostage/taker, poker game/confession- to the point where the Doctor and Davros seemingly become the same-“am I a good man?”, the “team” Missy/Clara is remarkable for the clear definition it provides. Clara is a “puppy” to a “couple” of Time Lords, a “canary” to Missy’s “miner”, “slave” to her vortex manipulator : they are an item. From “You and me together, off we go. Let's make jam!” to “We're not a team // Of course we are”, the show makes a point of emphasising their status. The dialogues, full of banters, questions and answers, solidify the dynamic; it is a collaboration, not a match, even if Missy’s words are often predatory.

But when you think about it, Missy’s aggression would be a rather ill-advised relationship to have with a spirit, even familiar. Missy needs Clara to save the Doctor –and worse, she likes her.

Missy’s evilness is never veiled: she talks about eating Clara, waves a wooden stick in her face, pushes her down a hole, repeatedly instructs her to “say”, “circle right”, “don’t ask”, claims Time Lords can do this and that, and eventually whispers in the Doctor’s ears to kill her. Missy’s constant reminder of her Gallifreyan origin, which she views as superior, does the exact opposite of branding Clara as a “puppy”: Missy is the alien entity that survives death and can kill a Dalek with a pin. Clara is the human one in this relationship. Clara also shows no sign of trust towards Missy, but she is willing to take whatever advice and knowledge Missy is sharing for the Doctor’s sake. Missy whispering in Clara’s ears, both threatening and oddly protecting… Mephisto and Faust. There is no doubt the story depicts **Missy as a familiar spirit, rather than a sorceress.**

Also, interestingly, the etymology of the term gives the Latin  _familiaris_ as an origin which means ["domestic, private, belonging to a family, of a household"](http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=familiar). If you are familiar with Roman mythology, you will be aware of the existence of _spirits_ that were attached to the protection of family and household: the Penates and Lares. Spirits of the dead watching over, they could be honoured in the shape of small statues or paintings. No need to picture it, the “The Fire of Pompeii” provided a nice example with Quintus thanking his household gods in the guise of the Doctor and Donna... Doctor Who has a history of depicting the Doctor as a spirit, apparently. And in nature, Missy and the Doctor are not so different, they are both spirits.

So if Missy is the familiar…

 

## On my command

**Clara is the witch**. Simply. “The wicked witch of the well” from “The Day of the Doctor”, the sorceress who has the same ability to summon spirits as the magician -and make them obey-, who has her own light vehicle, helmet included, who is called by UNIT in case of trouble, whom the familiar teaches and leads, and who is changed and monsterised by her collaboration with spirits. Or in this case, canned. Clara is Faust and Margarita, flirting with evil for good but enjoying far too much the world flying fast and blurry at her feet.

But still no magician in sight.

And I must admit I have found none yet. Just like the second episode turned on their head the expectations regarding the titles, it may be that later stories will introduce Clara as the magician. It could be; she is the Witch after all. But with the magician also comes an exigence of sentencing and execution – the spirits answer to the master’s voice only and the sorcerer abandons his apprentice. We’ve already seen the ruthless side of Clara as she was prepared to execute Missy in “Death in Heaven” and you don’t put your character twice in a Dalek’s outfit without shouting: “Chekhov’s gun!”

But, closer to us, in a move that only the show can pull, the one character who most successfully performs the magician’s classic role, by framing the story at the end and beginning, by summoning the Doctor the very first time and the most naturally, by holding onto the concept of mercy that would save Clara –magic words-, was _child Davros_.

Young Davros, even in his future darkness, embodies the power of the show a sort of maximal potential of hope. Even in the direst situation. Davros will be Davros and the Doctor will hurt the child he used to be. But for now he saves a potential of hope in Davros, potential that will dwindle through wars and horrors to a shagreen – one word: mercy. One word that was enough to save Clara.

 

And the picture is complete. Let’s loop the loop:

Because of the episode structure, the mirror is unavoidable. But distorted – as Clara’s words are transformed by the Dalek interface. The twist was that two Davros were mirroring Clara and Missy, the witch and the demon: a child with a dark future and an unrepentant trickster. “Same software, different case”. It could be a question of time.

The Doctor is outside the equation. He rejects Davros and doesn’t echo Missy or Clara. And quite fortunately, since he doesn’t listen to Missy’s deceiving words or Clara’s distorted cry inside the Dalek. But as he was ready to let a child die because of the monstrous disguise Davros would one day create and lock himself into, would he cause harm to Clara, willingly, to stop her, despite their friendship? Missy was a friend once and the Doctor walked hand in hand with Davros. What does it take to turn a friend into an enemy?

Missy concludes Clara was to help the Doctor see “the friend inside the enemy, the enemy inside the friend”. Sorcerer’s apprentice and familiar spirits: they are stories of relationships, one broken, the other stretched, and none harmonious.

**Author's Note:**

> * The debate around the supernatural is also of importance outside the present analysis : Missy’s con from last season partially depended on Clara’s ability to change the Doctor from a man who would not believe in Robin Hood to a man who would search for a physical Hell. In Lucian’s story, the Doctor is not a sorcerer deceived by an apprentice, he’s a positivist and a tricky philosopher is trying to bring him round to his views.


End file.
